Anti-Insurance Fraud Unit a must – Tóibín
Leader of Aontú, Peadar Tóibín TD, has said that insurance companies who suspect that people are making fraudulent claims, should report these to the gardaí.
Responding today to comments made by the CEOs of two insurance companies during the Oireachtas Finance Committee today, that 20% of claims are likely fraudulent, Deputy Tóibín said:
“Insurance premiums have spiralled out of control in this country and a huge contribution to this is compensation culture which is becoming endemic. Both the CEOs of Axa Insurance and Allianz estimated that 20% of personal injury cases had signals for fraud investigations.
“Despite this, the industry has only reported a tiny fraction to the gardaí. FBD CEO, Fiona Muldoon said that the guards “would not thank us” if we brought each claim to them. Clearly there is scope here for developing a specialised unit within the gardaí whereby suspect claims and fraudulent claimants can be scrutinised.
“As it stands, the system in Ireland incentivises claimants and the legal industry but there is little incentive for the insurance industry to challenge the claimants, even when they are fraudulent, with only 6% of cases going to court.
“Why has the government not set up an Insurance Fraud Squad? Why do we have a system where only a tiny minority of claims make it to court? Businesses are shutting down. People and families are seriously struggling. This inaction is serving no-one but the industry itself as well as select government representatives as recent scandals have revealed.”
